Bullet-riddled bodies found

PESHAWAR, Nov 17:  Bullet-riddled bodies of a young girl and a man were found in the limits of Badbher police in suburbs of Peshawar on Saturday.

An official of the area police said that the girl seemed to be 22 years old while the man was 30 years old. Both the bodies had signs of violence and bullets. The bodies, he said had been thrown in a nullah in Jani Khwar area away from the main population.

He said that local people could not identify the bodies and after postmortem they were buried at a local graveyard temporarily.

He said that they seemed to be hailing from Punjab, adding that efforts were being made to inform the police in different districts of the province. —Bureau Report

Children’s literature festival

PESHAWAR, Nov 17: A two-day children’s literature festival held at Islamia Collegiate School was participated by hundreds of students and teachers from public and private schools from across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

The festival, third in a series after Lahore and Quetta, was adorned with book stalls, cultural and educational goods, handmade clothes and traditional local dresses, and folklore instruments.

The event was organised by the Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) in collaboration with the Foundation Open Society Institutes, Pakistan, British Council and the Bacha Khan Trust Education Foundation.

The wide variety of stalls and activities offered opportunities to students to explore their creative abilities as well as hone their love for reading by participating in different sessions, including read aloud, creative poetry and art and storey-telling in a model Qissa Khawani bazaar. Traditional hujra and bathak were also depicted in models.

The festival was graced by provincial Minister for Higher Education Qazi Assad and Minister for Environment Wajid Ali Khan. —Bureau Report

Nine injured in gas blast

KARAK, Nov 17: Five women and four children suffered serious burn injuries when a room in a house caught fire and exploded due to gas leakage near Karak city on Saturday.

Relatives said wife of Saadullah, namely Taj Bibi, was trying to light fire in the morning when the entire room filled with gas caught fire and exploded. As a result, all the women and children inside the room suffered serious injuries.

The neighbours rushed to the house and rescued the women and children from the room. They were immediately shifted to hospital, where doctors referred them to Peshawar in serious condition.

The injured were identified as Taj Bibi and her son Ihtesham, 5, Shabana, wife of Azmatullah, and her son Ibrar, 7, Shabana, wife of Shah Hussain, and her daughters Gulalay, 4, and Tooba, 3, Bano, wife of Abbas, and Noorzada, wife of Nadir Hussain.

Family sources said two of the seriously injured women were shifted to the burn unit of Kharian hospital. —Correspondent  

FCR reforms in Fata

GHALANAI, Nov 17: Local leaders of political parties will form a body named ‘Mohmand Siasi Ittehad’ to take solid steps for the implementation of FCR reforms in the tribal areas.

The consensus to this effect was reached at a meeting of all political parties convened by the local chapter of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf.

The participants agreed to forge unity and form an association of all parties to work for the implementation of reforms in Fata.

They also agreed to appoint PTI’s Naveed Khan as chairman, JI’s Anwar Said Bacha as deputy chairman of the new organisation, while two members from each party would also be included in it.

Meanwhile, Political Agent Mohmand Agency Adil Siddiq on Saturday inaugurated a solar system for the computer lab of Government College of Management Sciences, Ghalanai.

APA Jamshed Khan, political naib tehsildar Shamsul Islam, principal GCMS Zahoor Ahmad and officials of the Fata Secretariat Special Programme (FSSP) were also present. —Correspondent